Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. Hope you're doing well. Today, we are talking about one of the most bizarre stories to come out of the music world this week.

While on the surface, it may seem like a really weird, silly, isolated incident, I do think the topic of today's video is indicative of a larger trend right now in terms of music fans just being entitled and siloed off into their own respective music musical bubbles in such a way to where they only feel comfortable a lot of the time listening to songs and artists and sounds and vibes they're already familiar with.

Case in point, singer-songwriter, Gracie Abrams. I personally may have my own reasons for not really being a big fan of her music. But you know what? She has put a lot of work into the records she has dropped up until this point. She has a fan base who loves what she does. And of course, as a result of that, she is more than then entitled to get out there into the world, perform, do a whole tour, which she is about to embark on behind her latest full-length LP.

And as the leader for a headline tour, you usually take it upon yourself to handpick your openers for the bill. For a big tour such as this, that can be a pretty cool thing. I can help put on lesser-known artists and expose them to an audience of people who might not have known about them before. I'm sure in a way, Gracie is paying it forward in this way because I think there are a lot of music fans out there who might not have necessarily heard about her if it weren't for the fact that she had spent so many dates opening up for the great famous Taylor Swift.

So for said live performances, Gracie seems to have gone with New York indie bedroom pop singer-songwriting personality Dora Jar. Someone whose work I'm not necessarily super familiar with myself, but that's irrelevant for this context because there's absolutely nothing musically that she could be doing that would warrant this commentary that you see here on your screen right now, because apparently there are at least some Gracie Abrams fans that are not really happy with the Dora Jar pick.

So as a result, we have a Change.org petition to lobby for Gracie to change the opener to the show to somebody else. And they stated their reasoning in this petition as well.

"Many fans, including myself, are baffled by the recent announcement that Dora Jar will be the opening act for The Secret of Us Tour's Europe Shows. We are perplexed as we do not recognize her, and with less than two weeks till the tour, it's virtually impossible to familiarize ourselves with he slow-paced songs."

Oh, my God. The logic is so stupid. It's so baby-brained. It's so dumb. I love that the prime issue and problem cited with this is that you're just not familiar with her. I'm sorry, is every musical experience you're supposed to have from now to the rest of your life and every concert that you ever see, supposed to be an artist that you're 100% familiar with already?

On top of it, as popular and as successful and as famous as Gracie Abrams is right now, she's still not a top-tier artist in terms of her fan base, her chart positions, and her overall popularity. And I mean, openers are usually, comparatively speaking, smaller artists than the headliner for the show. Are you expecting Gracie Abrams to get somebody opening up for her who is on a similar level of popularity and familiarity or somebody who's more popular than her? That's not how bills fucking work.

I mean, right now, Gracie is at the mid-tier of mainstream singing, songwriting, and popularity. So of course, she's going to pick somebody to open up for her who is not quite on that same level. So, yeah, chances are it's going to be somebody who you don't know. And I just find it silly that you don't see that as maybe an opportunity to broaden your horizons, maybe, but not even that much. Because when you look at the genres that Dora Jar dabbles in, it's very much in the Gracie Abrams' wheelhouse. There should be a lot of crossover appeal here.

And Gracie picked the support. So she's literally telling you, 'Hey, here's an artist doing something I personally think is cool,' and you're pushing it away like a baby who refuses to eat broccoli.

"For a memorable concert experience, an opening act should set the mood and get the crowd excited but Dora's slow tempo songs may not achieve this goal."

Oh, no. A song might be slow. Oh, the worst thing in the world. This is hilarious to me because it's not exactly like Gracie Abrams writes really fast-paced fist-pumping like crazy over-the-top anthems. What the hell do you want here? Should Gracie tag a hardcore punk band to open up the show? I mean, some stage diving at the Gracie Abrams concert might actually be fire.

"It's not just a personal concern. According to Billboard, upbeat opening acts are essential to the overall concert experience as they set the tone for the headlining act and help in keeping the audience's energy up throughout the show (Billboard, 2019)."

I like how we're throwing in a reference here, like Billboard is some scientific concert authority. This really should be like an MLA format footnote on the last page, if anything.

"Keeping this in consideration, it seems only fair that a more well-known, energetic artist or band should replace Dora Jar as the opening act."

How about just allowing Dora Jarr to open up the Gracie Abram shows for the sake of art? What if, artistically speaking, Gracie just thinks Dora Jarr makes cool songs? What if Gracie, in fact, likes the contrast in overall vibes and energies between her and Dora Jahr's music for the concerts?

It finishes off with:

"Please show your support for a more enjoyable concert experience by signing this petition for the replacement of Dora Jar as the opening act of The Secret of Us Tour."

Again, grossness, again, entitlement, again, self-centeredness, and again, again, again, trying to justify it by making it seem like there's some greater body of study proving that your shitty opinion is right, when in reality, all this truly is, is that this person has a preference, and you know what? That's all right. You don't have to like Dora Jara's music, and truth be told, you will be fine. You will be totally okay sitting through an opener that you think is just all right to catch an appearance or performance from an artist that you genuinely enjoy. I'm okay. I've been to countless shows over the course of my lifetime, and you think I've loved every fucking opener to see the artist I was actually there for? No. Sometimes, and get this, I've actually enjoyed the opener more than the headlining artist.

But yeah, it's sad how much streaming services and the Internet have allowed people's tastes to be catered to the point where they feel like listening to anything that they are unfamiliar with is beneath them. It's like a pain. It's a torture they shouldn't be subjected to.

Now, I will end this by saying a bit of a silver lining to this cloud is that Dora Jar has reacted to this, and she seems to have taken these comments in stride and as being a bit funny about it and wearing it as a badge of honor.

Also, thankfully, Gracie Abrams to her credit, doesn't seem to be fostering this attitude in her audience and has spoken out about how just ridiculous and stupid this petition is. She's very much standing by Dora Jar for the openings of these shows.

Again, I don't mean to paint this specifically as a young person thing or a Gracie Abrams fan thing. Really just a word of warning that I feel like we should all be conscious of the fact that the internet and music streaming platforms are really poisoning the well in terms of people's music tastes and the lack of overall variety that we're being exposed to on a regular basis, and frankly, how much bland, lifeless, uninspired, algorithmically aggrandized bullshit that we're being exposed to on any given day.

Honestly, all sorts of popular music, regardless of whether or not I like it, has a time, and a place. and an audience. I'm not saying it's wrong to enjoy listening to or being a fan of any one thing, however. I do feel like it is upon us as music listeners, fans, and consumers to make sure that our palettes and our listening diets are broad and adventurous so that, again, we don't end up baby-brained and afraid that we'll have to sit through an opening set from an indie bedroom singer-songwriter whose songs might just be a little subtle, a little low-key, a little slower than average.

Lots of amazing bands and artists and songs have operated in that mode, and that's not something I think we should try to write a petition up to prevent ourselves from having to experience. Because who knows? If you pull your head out of your ass and keep an open mind, you might actually enjoy it.

But yeah, those are my thoughts on this preposterous situation. What are yours? I'm sure you'll let me know in the comments.

Anthony Fantano. Petitions. Dora Jar. Forever.